The present invention relates to display of visual media information. More particularly, the present invention relates to user influenced display of visual media information.
In recent years, network bandwidth has increased to the point where web pages can include visual media information, such as video, without presentation of such web pages taking an unduly long time. The advantages of visual media information are numerous. For example, visual media information can include moving images and audio information, which is a richer format than textual information. Visual media information is also typically provided to the user with user interactive functionalities. The user controls if and when to start, stop, pause, repeat, etc. his/her viewing of the visual media information. Visual media information, and by extension web pages including such information, may also attract more potential viewers than web pages containing only textual information. Visual media information may also transcend language barriers.
Visual media information included in a web page is typically provided at a fixed area within the web page. If the entirely of the web page requires a larger viewing area than the browser window, then the area with the visual media information can fall outside the browser window depending on the user's interaction with the browser window scroll bar(s). Changing the viewing area of the web page is not uncommon given the fact that most web pages also contain other content (e.g., textual information) at other fixed areas relative to the area for the visual media information.
As the user views the web page and initiates viewing of the visual media information (e.g., clicks on the “play” button icon), the user's interest may turn to other content on the same web page. The user could scroll the web page to the extent that the area associated with the visual media information is partially or fully outside the viewing area of the browser window (such scrolling action is common for long web pages). However, the visual media information continues to “play” regardless of whether the user is currently able to view such content. By the time the user returns to the area containing the visual media information, it may have completed “playing.” Alternatively, the user is required to return to the area associated with the visual media information in order to change the presentation state of the visual media information (e.g., to click on the “pause” or “stop” button icon). Thus, the potential of having visual media information included in a web page is not fully realized, because when the visual media information is outside the viewing area of the browser window, it is no different, from the user's point of view, than a web page that does not have visual media information.
One way to maintain the visual media information in a viewable area is to configure the entirety of the web page including the visual media information to fit within the viewable area of the browser window. This may be accomplished either when the web page is created or by the browser at presentation time. Sometimes this approach may not be possible because all of the web page cannot be rendered in the viewable area at once and still be legible.
Another way is to segment the web page into more than one web page and repeat the visual media information in each of the segmented web pages. This approach is likely to involve each segment including a link to the next segment. The downsides to this approach are, among others, decreasing the user experience by requiring more link clicking and/or the lack of continuity in the presentation state of the visual media information among the segmented web pages (e.g., if the visual media information “played” a quarter of the way through in a first segment, then the second segment does not start play of the same visual media information at the start of the second quarter point).
Still another way to maintain the visual media information in a viewable area is to provide the visual media information in a separate browser window, such as a pop-up window. For example, a first browser window may contain a web page with content other than the visual media information, and a second browser window, either automatically or upon user request, opens to provide the visual media information. Each browser window typically functions independently of each other and only one window can be in “front” (or be responsive to user commands) at any given time. Thus, if the user starts to “play” the visual media information in the second window and then goes to the first window to view content in that window, the first window could obscure the second window or the second window may become minimized.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to have a web page that includes visual media information, in which the visual media information is persistently viewable by the user for the duration of the presentation of the web page. It would be beneficial for the user to have persistent access to interactive functionalities associated with the visual media information for the duration of the presentation of the web page. It would be beneficial to provide a system and method capable of continually presenting the visual media information within the viewable area of a browser window regardless of the scrolling action by the user. It would be beneficial to provide a system and method capable of dynamically modifying a web page that includes visual media information such that the visual media information may be dynamically positioned relative to other content included in the web page in response to user action.